Mary Alexander • 25 August 2025

An astonishing 31-million-tonne motherlode of gold ore with a yield of 320,000 tonnes of refined gold valued at US$12 trillion has been discovered in Uganda.

At least, that’s the claim spreading on social media in August 2025.

A tonne is a thousand kilograms. Gold is measured in troy ounces, a unit of 31.1 grams and the amount of gold in a Krugerrand, so the find could produce an astonishing 10.3 billion Kruggerrands.

Uganda is a small landlocked country in East Africa, about the size of the United Kingdom.

In 2023 its gold production, most of it by small-scale artisanal miners, was just 0.0042 tonnes.

This is a drop in the bucket for Africa’s top gold-producing countries. In the same year, Ghana mined 130.6 tonnes of gold, South Africa 105.7 tonnes and Mali 103.4 tonnes. The average output of the continent’s top 10 gold countries was 76.7 tonnes.

Uganda’s output was 0.005% of that.

‘Unexplained mysteries’

The claim has recently spread widely on Facebook (here, here and here), Instagram (here, here and here), X (here, here and here), TikTok (here, here and here), LinkedIn (here, here and here) and YouTube (here, here and here).

A common version reads: “Uganda has made a groundbreaking discovery of 31 million metric tonnes of gold ore, with estimates suggesting it contains over 320,000 tonnes of refined gold valued at an incredible $12 trillion.”

The claim is false – and more than three years old – but it isn’t your typical bogus social media slop. It was reported by Reuters in 2022, citing a Ugandan government official. (Images: Facebook)

Some versions use graphics with photos of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986. They read:

• Uganda Discovers Over 31 Million Metric Tonnes Of Gold Ore Valued At $12 Trillion
• Uganda Has Discovered Gold Deposits Worth More Than $12 Trillion Igniting Economic Hope
• Unexplained Mysteries: 31 million tonnes of ‘Gold Ore’. This much Gold was found in Uganda, with extractable pure gold estimated to gross 320,000 tonnes.

But every figure in the claim is, simply, impossible.

(More than) all the gold in the world

Although the claim is false – and more than three years old – it isn’t your typical bogus social media slop. The reputable news agency Reuters reported it on 8 June 2022, citing a Ugandan government official.

Energy and mineral development ministry spokesperson Solomon Muyita told Reuters that “two years of aerial exploration … across the country followed by geophysical and geochemical surveys and analyses” had revealed “gold ore deposits of about 31 million tonnes”.

“Muyita said an estimated 320,158 tonnes of refined gold could be extracted from the 31 million tonnes of ore,” Reuters said.

Other news reports from June 2022 quote a document prepared by the ministry: “The volume of the reserves is estimated at 31 million tonnes of gold ore, or net 320,158 tonnes of gold, valued at $12.8 trillion …”

The problem is, 320,158 tonnes is more than all the gold produced since we started mining the stuff about 6,000 years ago. The World Gold Council says the “best estimates suggest that around 216,265 tonnes of gold have been mined throughout history”.

That’s only two-thirds of what’s promised in Uganda.

World Gold Council data (PDF, Excel) reveals that in the 15 years from 2010 to 2024 the entire world’s total gold output was 50,941 tonnes. That’s under 16% of Uganda’s reported 320,158 tonnes. China, the world’s top gold producer, mined 4,721.9 tonnes (1.47%) in those 15 years. And the Asian country is huge, with a land area of 9.6 million square kilometres. Uganda, at 241,550 square kilometres, could fit into it almost 40 times.

Beyond ‘bonanza’ grade

More than this, the extraction of 320,158 tonnes of refined gold from 31 million tonnes of ore would mean that Uganda’s deposits have an average grade of 10,000 grams per tonne. That is beyond unheard of.

Gold ore is simply rock that contains particles of gold – sometimes more, sometimes less, but always in tiny quantities. The rock first has to be mined – dug out of the earth – then crushed and ground to a powder, after which various chemical and mechanical processes are used to extract the metal.

The grade of raw, freshly mined gold ore is measured in grams per tonne (g/t), with higher grades yielding more gold from each tonne mined. For open-pit mines, a high grade is 1.5 or more grams of gold for each tonne of ore. For underground mines, a high grade is eight grams per ton and a “bonanza” grade one troy ounce (31.1 grams) per tonne.

In 2015, the world’s 10 highest-grade gold mines had an output of between 11.1 and 44.1 g/t. Today, the Fosterville gold mine in Australia is recognised as the world’s highest-grade gold operation, producing an average of 28 g/t and historically reaching up to 40 g/t.

There simply is no rational comparison between the 10,000 g/t in the Ugandan claim and the proven peak of 40 g/t from the world’s highest-grade gold mine. If the claim were true, the ore found in Uganda would have at least 250 times more gold in it than the richest ore at Fosterville.

As one investment analyst wrote soon after the Reuters article appeared:

Thirty-one-million tonnes of ore with an average gold grade over 10,000 g/t… no. At that grade, there would be visible gold absolutely everywhere. Gold would be spilling out of the rock. You wouldn’t be able to walk without stepping on gold.

With that much gold discovered, the price of the metal would have plummeted. It hasn’t.

The average gold price for the second quarter – April, May and June – of 2025 was $3,280.35 per troy ounce, up by 40% on the same period in 2024. At that price, Uganda’s supposed gold find would be worth $33.8 trillion. That’s more than the value of all global trade in 2024.

The post No evidence Uganda has discovered 320,000 tonnes of gold worth $12 trillion – and evidence against it appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 22 JULY 2024

Does the British monarch own all the land in England?

John Hlophe, the parliamentary leader of South Africa’s new opposition uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), made the claim after being sworn in at the national assembly on 25 June. He was arguing for his party’s policy of land expropriation and nationalisation.

“The land in Africa can never be the subject of private ownership. The land belongs to the nation. It doesn’t form part of private ownership,” he told journalists.

He added: “And we are not alone in that regard. Look at the UK. The land in England, the land belongs to the queen. Everybody else has a 99-year lease.”

England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, also known as Britain. The others are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

By “the queen”, Hlophe meant the British monarch, currently king Charles III since the death of his mother, queen Elizabeth II, in 2022. The monarch is the UK’s head of state.

The election manifesto of Hlophe’s MKP lists eight “pillars” – things the party hopes to do. Its second pillar is to “expropriate all land without compensation, transferring ownership to the people under the state and traditional leaders”.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), another South African opposition party, has a similar stance on land.

‘They’re all on 99yr lease. Are they poor?’

The claim that the British monarch owns all the land in England – or in Britain as a whole – has been circulating on social media since before Hlophe’s press conference.

“The Queen of England owns Britain, Canada and Australia and the land in Britain belongs to her,” reads a 24 June post on Facebook.*

An X post reads:

I support the idea of gvmnt becoming a custodian of all land. If you have no use for the land, you must relinquish it to the state to distribute it to those who need to use it.

This is happening in economy jurisdictions that we admire. In England, the land belongs to the queen.

— Mduh (@ThisIsMduh) July 2, 2024

Other versions include:

• “I think the model the EFF is advocating for is similar to one used in England where all the land belongs to the Queen – in our case I guess it would belong to Government.”
• “English law […] states all land in England belongs to the Queen.”
• “In UK the King Charles owns all the land and everyone has 99 year leases and it works very well. No one complains.”
• “No one owns the land in England, it is owned by the King/Queen. They’re all on 99yr lease. Are they poor?”

Is any of this true?

The monarch is not the crown

A 2022 UK house of commons research briefing reads:

Land ownership in England and Wales is based on historical feudal principles. The Crown owns all land in England and Wales; people own estates in land either directly or indirectly from the Crown (for example, a freehold estate or a leasehold estate).

There are two important points here. First, “the crown” is not the same as the monarch. Second, a “freehold estate” is privately owned land.

Another briefing defines the crown:

The Crown encompasses both the monarch and the government. It is vested in the King, but in general its functions are exercised by Ministers of the Crown accountable to the UK Parliament or the three devolved legislatures.

The crown is equivalent to the state in other countries.

And the crown “owns” the land in the sense that it has sovereignty over the land, giving legal weight to private land ownership.

Freehold and leasehold land

In the UK, a freehold estate is land freely and privately owned. It does not belong to the monarch. Freehold land ownership has been a principle of British law for centuries.

“The term freehold property ownership refers to the ownership of both the land and the building on it for an indefinite period of time,” says one UK property expert.

In fact, the HM Land Registry, a government department created in 1862, exists to “register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales”.

King Charles himself privately owns an extensive portfolio of freehold property – but not “all the land”.

Leasehold property, by contrast, is owned only for a fixed period of time. It is leased from the landowner – also called the freeholder. Leases have no specific timeframe. They can be as short as a day or as long as 999 years.

Land is also privately owned in Scotland, where there are concerns about the small number of landowners who hold huge swathes of the country’s rural areas. Northern Ireland also has private land ownership.

The question of land ownership is complex. But the claim that the British monarch owns all the land in England, or the UK as a whole, is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Edited version published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

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MARY ALEXANDER • 22 July 2024

“That Limpopo explosion that took place today is crazy,” reads the caption of a video circulating on social media in South Africa. “Hope everyone who was trying to help survived.”*

The 12-second clip shows a tanker truck burning on the side of a road. It then explodes and flames cover the screen. The rest of the video is the camera tumbling to capture random images as someone cries out.

Limpopo is South Africa’s northernmost province, on the border with Zimbabwe. Some captions put the video’s location as “between Louis Trichardt and Tshakuma”, meaning Tshakhuma, two settlements close to the border.

Others blame South African authorities.

“Why are people of this calibre given responsibility that is clearly beyond them?” one caption reads. “If this is ‘equality’ or ‘equity’ is it is also murder and destruction. It threatens us all in so many ways, but we can’t change the nature of the beast or its privileges.”

But does the video really show a “crazy” explosion in South Africa’s Limpopo province?

Road markings not from South Africa

The viral claim most likely began with a 4 July post by a verified X account.

But in the comments, other X users were quick to call wanya: “You can see Those road markings are not for South African roads.”

Wanya. You can see Those road markings are not for South African roads pic.twitter.com/utJ2HwdD0D

— Schwarzenegger Chauke (@eliotchauke1) July 4, 2024

Another commented: “This is a Propane explosion that happened on the BR-010 near the Paragominas Palace Hotel in Brazil.”

This is a Propane explosion that happened on the BR-010 near the Paragominas Palace Hotel in Brazil. https://t.co/WZsBDMzkGf

— █████ (@SupaJacks) July 4, 2024

The comment includes a link to a Portuguese-language news article that includes the video. Brazil is a country in South America. Its official language is Portuguese.

A machine translation of the headline reads: “Tanker truck explodes after accident on highway in Pará; videos show moment.”

According to the article, the tanker exploded after an accident on a highway between the municipalities of Paragominas and Ulianópolis in Brazil’s northern state of Pará. Three people were injured. The accident was on 3 July, the day before the viral claim popped up online.

A Google search using the keywords “tanker explosion Pará Brazil” led to several other news reports on the incident, all placing it in the South American country.

There have been no news reports of a recent tanker explosion in South Africa’s Limpopo.

EU law threatens X monetisation

One of the comments on the original X post suggests that the false claim is simply to attract attention: “atleast you’ll get the views! Limpopo is Brazil this today?”

atleast you’ll get the views! Limpopo is Brazil this today?

— Dolby wa Moroka(Double Doli) (@DollyBy2) July 4, 2024

Since Elon Musk bought X (then Twitter) in 2022, users have been able to earn money on the platform through subscriptions and advertising. But they have to be verified users, and this monetisation requires high engagement with their posts – views and comments.

There have been concerns that monetisation feeds sensationalist disinformation on the platform.

In October 2023 Musk threatened to demonetise X creators who posted false information. “Any posts that are corrected by Community Notes become ineligible for revenue share,” he posted.

This came after the European Union challenged Musk to clamp down on the site’s false content, illegal under the EU’s Digital Services Act.

The act aims to ensure a “safe, predictable and trusted online environment, addressing the dissemination of illegal content online and the societal risks that the dissemination of disinformation or other content may generate”.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Report published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post ‘Crazy’ tanker truck explosion in South Africa? No, video from Brazil appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 21 July 2024

On the evening of 13 July 2024 former US president Donald Trump was holding a rally in the state of Pennsylvania when a would-be assassin opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle. A bullet clipped Trump’s ear.

He was quickly bundled to the floor and whisked off stage by secret service agents, but not before rising to pump his fist and shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Five days later, Trump formally accepted his nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate in the US presidential election, set for November. He’ll likely be up against current vice president Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, after president Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

The shooting has polarised conversations on social and other media about US voters’ choices in November. Some analysts say it has improved Trump’s chances. Others point to history: previous attempts to assassinate US presidential candidates have had little impact on the final outcome.

And as with most major news events, false information soon followed.

One is an image of Trump seconds after the shooting, his fist raised and blood on his face with the US flag behind him, being held by secret service agents. But the agents seem to be smiling.

The secret service is a US federal government law enforcement agency. One of its duties is to protect current and past presidents.

The image has been circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere with claims that the assassination attempt was staged to boost Trump’s campaign.* These include:

• “Even the Secret Service is laughing at what a big joke it was […]”
• “So if it was really an attempt & not staged why are the secret service guys smiling & why did they allow him to pop his head up.”
• “The Secret Service smiling and hiding in the midst of an assassination attempt??? Yeah, it was staged.”
• “The secret service allows a shooter climb a tree get on a whit roof from 150yards out ya that doesn’t happen , And why are the smiling and laughing ? I don’t buy it ???”

But were the agents really smiling?

‘The thing about photography …’

The image has been altered in a particularly bumbling attempt at disinformation, as the original photo has become globally famous in the days since the shooting. It’s been published in news reports across the world. It’s even available as desktop wallpaper.

In the original, the secret service agents are definitely not smiling.

The photo was shot by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Evan Vucci of the Associated Press.

In several interviews since the photo was published, Vucci has described the split-second moments when he snapped the pic and several others like it.

“I heard the shots. So I ran to the stage as the Secret Service agents were starting to cover president Trump up. They were coming up on the stage from all different directions, and they were going on top of him. I went to the front side of the stage and I started photographing everything I could,” he told the UK Guardian.

He added: “The thing about photography is two people can see the exact same image and have a completely different reaction.”

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Report published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post US secret service agents grinning after Trump assassination attempt? No, image altered appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 20 JULY 2024

“Settler savages try to tear a Palestinian child apart in the occupied West Bank,” reads the caption for a photo circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere since late June 2024.

The photo shows men pulling at the legs of a small person, horizontal and off the ground, while others – obscured by onlookers – pull at the person’s arms. A man in uniform is at left.

On Facebook, the claim has been posted* as a screenshot of a now-deleted X post with comments such as:

• “They will tell you all the Arab hate them and want to anhilate them. If it’s true maybe there ia a strong reason to this….”
• “This is what Zionism has turned them into.”
• “When basic human standards are violated…. The barbaric nature of the Zionist Israeli settlers….”

Israel is a country in the Middle East and the world’s only Jewish state, established within Palestine in 1948. Today, what remains of Palestine is the tiny Gaza Strip to the west and the larger West Bank in the east, so named because it lies on the western bank of the Jordan river.

Since 1967 Israeli settlements have steadily encroached on Palestinian territories, particularly the West Bank. The United Nations human rights commissioner has reported that some 700,000 Israeli settlers are “living illegally in the occupied West Bank”.

On 19 July the UN’s international court of justice gave an advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories was illegal, and that Israel was obliged to end its presence, evacuate all settlers and stop new settlements.

But does the photo really show settlers trying to “tear a Palestinian child apart in the occupied West Bank”?

Border police halt illegal occupiers during 2009 settlement freeze

A reverse image search reveals that the photo is almost 15 years old, and the person being pulled at is an Israeli settler, not a Palestinian child.

The photo is part of the Getty Images collection of stock photography, credited to AFP photographer Yehuda Raizner and dated 13 September 2009.

Its caption reads: “Israeli settlers try to pull a fellow settler as he is dragged away by border policemen during clashes at the entrance to the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, west of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, after Israeli police tried to confiscate a truck containing material to build a new house.”

It adds: “The United States has been trying for months to secure an Israeli settlement freeze while pressing Arab states for reciprocal concessions to clear the way for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks suspended in late December.”

The 2009 attempt at a settlement freeze was just one of many over decades.

There is no Palestinian child in the photo. The claim is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Report published by Africa Check on 30 July 2024

The post Israeli ‘savages’ trying to ‘tear Palestinian child apart’? No, old photo of clash between police and West Bank settlers appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 18 JULY 2024

“It turns out that the World Health Organization, in its founding document (1946), EXEMPTED itself from criminal prosecution,” reads a claim circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere since 8 July 2024.*

It includes a one-minute video of UK comedian and known conspiracist Russell Brand interviewing US financial analyst and known conspiracist David Martin.

Brand asks Martin why he claims the WHO is a “criminal cartel” and “how the events of the last few years somehow demonstrate or at least utilise that”.

Martin responds: “In the founding document of the World Health Organization, they gave themselves the right to be exempt from all criminal prosecution of any kind whatsoever.”

He adds: “Why would an organisation need to give itself exemption from criminal prosecution? This is not civil prosecution, this is criminal prosecution …”

The reason “they wrote that into their founding charter”, Martin says, “is because they knew they were already breaking the law”.

Throughout the video, a clipped page of the WHO’s supposed “founding document” is displayed on screen as proof of Martin’s claim. It includes a URL to the page https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/pdf_files/BD_49th-en.pdf#page=34. That’s page 34.

The page is headed: “CONVENTION ON PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES. Article V – Representatives of Members”.

It reads:

Representatives of members at meetings convened by a specialized agency shall, while exercising their functions and during their journeys to and from the place of meeting, enjoy the following privileges and immunities:
(a) Immunity from personal arrest or detention and from seizure of their personal baggage, and in respect of words spoken or written and all acts done by them in their official capacity, immunity from legal process of every kind;

But the page isn’t part of the WHO’s “founding document”, and doesn’t “exempt” the WHO from “criminal prosecution”.

Convention passed by UN general assembly in 1947

If Martin had looked just four pages up to https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/pdf_files/BD_49th-en.pdf#page=30 (that’s page 30) he would have found that the section of text he refers to is not the WHO’s “founding document”.

Instead, it’s the text of a United Nations treaty, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies, adopted by the UN general assembly on 21 November 1947.

The treaty applies to all of the UN’s 17 specialised agencies. The WHO is just one of those 17.

The others include the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Seabed Authority, the International Telecommunication Union and the World Meteorological Organization.

All the treaty does is grant what is essentially diplomatic immunity to representatives of the UN’s specialised agencies, as international organisations. This means that officials from one country who travel to or live in another country are not subject to the laws of the second country. It is an ancient principle of international law.

The PDF Martin refers to is also not the WHO’s “founding document”. It’s simply a collection of essential WHO texts put together under the title “Basic Documents.”. It includes the WHO’s constitution, agreements with other intergovernmental organisations, rules and regulations, and more.

By “the events of the last few years”, Brand is clearly referring to the Covid pandemic. Both he and Martin are proponents of the disproved “plandemic” conspiracy theory, which holds that the pandemic was somehow planned by the WHO and other shadowy elites.

But in the video, Martin doesn’t explain how the WHO was “already breaking the law” back in 1947.

If the treaty text Martin refers to is proof that the WHO is a “criminal cabal”, then all other UN agencies are too – including, for example, the International Seabed Authority.

Read more: Russell Brand – Confidence man

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post No ‘founding document’ gives WHO exemption from ‘criminal prosecution’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 18 JULY 2024

After no single political party won a clear majority in South Africa’s 29 May 2024 elections, the African National Congress (ANC) invited other parties to form a government of national unity.

The ANC scored 40.2% of the national vote and the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) 21.8%. The newcomer uMkhonto weSizwe Party, which declined to join the unity government, was third with 14.6%.

The DA also retained government of the Western Cape province.

ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new unity cabinet on 30 June, with 20 of the 32 ministerial posts going to the ANC, six to the DA and six to smaller parties.

The DA’s Leon Schreiber was appointed minister of home affairs, a national department that maintains the population register and issues identity documents.

Days later, a screenshot of an odd X post seemingly by Alan Winde, the DA premier of the Western Cape, went viral on social media.*

“The DA now controls the Dept. of Home Affairs,” it reads. “Get your Digital & Medical ID at these Bank Branches. We will be prepared when the next pandemic arrives.”

It appears to have been posted on the X account @AlanWinde666, with the name Premier Alan Winde, and its profile pic shows the premier. It links to an article on banks that process ID applications.

The screenshot has been posted with – and has attracted – outraged comments. These include:

• “The DA is selling us out to the Globalists…”
• “The DA is part of the New World Order […] Things are going to get very tough by 2025 more and more freedoms being taken away.”
• “This is the same guy who was forcing vaccine down the throats of people of western cape. Now he already know there is another pandemic coming […]”
• “What is a Medical ID? And the 666 on Alan’s name. A coincidence too neh? June is in July with this GNU gig! […] COVIS was a test phase for Hell on Earth?”
• “When we said these things will happen they thought we were smoking dirty socks […] that’s your next plandemic….New world order loading…”

But did the DA’s Western Cape premier really post this?

No digital or medical IDs in South Africa

The handle of Winde’s verified X account is simply @alanwinde, not @AlanWinde666. That handle belongs to an account named, in full, Premier Alan Winde Western Cape Parody.

On the screenshot, the words “Western Cape Parody” are obscured by the follow button.

The account’s bio reads: “Sith Lord. Woke Dick-tator of WEFtern Cape DICTATORIAL Alliance. Free PALPATINE. Only an unelected one world government can save us!” It then adds: “Parody”.

Its banner is made up of images where “un” has been added to the DA’s name, to read “Undemocratic Alliance”. The images include the URL for YesCape.org, a website that promotes the secession of the Western Cape from South Africa.

And the account’s current pinned post reads, in part: “We take orders from our globalist masters (WEF and WHO), support lockdowns and vaxxine mandates, promote gender fluidity in your kids, back Ukraine (US proxy wars), promote the climate hoax and will do anything to avoid referendums.”

@AlanWinde666 published the X post in the viral screenshot on 2 July. It has been viewed some 13,500 times so far – and attracted many more outraged comments.

South Africa has two types of ID document: the old green ID book and the newer smart ID card. There is no such thing as a South African “digital ID” or “medical ID”.

Parody and satire are meant to poke fun at political and other opponents, but not mislead about those opponents’ statements. And when parody or satire is reposted as fact, it becomes disinformation.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 6 August 2024

The post ‘Pandemic’ post from ‘parody’ Cape independence X account, not South Africa’s Western Cape DA premier Alan Winde appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 15 JULY 2024

“Biden just gave citizenship to 1 MILLION illegal aliens by Executive Order,” reads a claim circulating on social media since late June 2024.*

Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

The claim adds that this is “an ILLEGAL ACT that violates the Constitution’s Separation of Powers”.

“If this is allowed, we do not have a Republic of laws, we have a DICTATORSHIP. If this is allowed, our Republic is DEAD.”

The US is headed for a presidential election in November, likely to pit Biden of the Democratic Party against former president Donald Trump of the Republican Party.

Immigration is a hot topic in the campaign. Trump is strongly against it, while Biden has promised a more “humane” approach, leading to accusations that he is “soft” on the topic.

There are an estimated 2.1 million African immigrants in the US, a number that has risen dramatically since the 1990s. The exact figure is difficult to determine as it was previously so low authorities classified African migrants as “other”.

In 2015, the top four countries of origin for African immigrants into the US were Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt and Kenya.

But has Biden recently granted US citizenship to 1 million people who are living in the US illegally?

New process to ‘keep families together’

The claim appeared online on 18 June, the day Biden announced a new process to allow the noncitizen spouses and children of US citizens to apply for legal permanent resident status without leaving the country – and to protect them from deportation.

The process was clarified in a White House fact sheet titled “President Biden Announces New Actions to Keep Families Together.” It will be implemented by the Department of Homeland Security.

Previously, the undocumented spouses of US citizens were required to return to their home countries to apply for legal status, a process that could take years.

“In order to be eligible, noncitizens must – as of June 17, 2024 – have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a US citizen, while satisfying all applicable legal requirements,” the fact sheet reads. “On average, those who are eligible for this process have resided in the US for 23 years.”

The requirements are stringent. Each case will be individually assessed by the DHS, and if approved the noncitizens will be given three years to apply for permanent residency.

It’s estimated that 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen children will benefit from the process, not 1 million. And the beneficiaries may only apply for permanent residence, not citizenship.

There has been no credible news that Biden recently “gave citizenship to 1 million illegal aliens by executive order”. The claim is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post No, US president Biden hasn’t given citizenship to 1 million illegal immigrants – new process only to ‘keep families together’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 14 JULY 2024

“Bill Gates has decided that the slave class needs to drink maggot milk,” reads one version of a claim going viral in South Africa, Kenya and across the world since late June 2024.*

“He’s launched ‘EntoMilk’ a food-like product. It’s described as a ‘dairy alternative’ that’s supposedly similar to real milk, but is made from ‘black soldier fly larvae’ or maggots. His goal is to introduce this product into the food supply…”

The claim links to a blog post with a stock photo of a mass of maggots crawling through a human skull. It’s headlined: “Bill Gates Has Launched ‘Maggot Milk’.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been a common target of conspiracy theories for years.

Another version of the claim reads:

You will drink the bugs and be happy! Wait, what? That’s right! Bill Gates’ latest evil venture is called EntoMilk. He wants to replace milk from animals (cow milk, goat milk) with maggot milk.

The claim has been posted with comments such as:

• This is an actual thing and he’s evil. look up Entomilk…
• What has the evil world of darkness been up to lately? Here is just one other hair raising demonic ploy of the elites.
• Zillionaire Bill Gates is at it again. He has already got the ball rolling on eliminating and replacing all meat products and now he is going after milk and dairy.
• Part of the new “Transhumanist” diet. I feel so bad for our Grandchildren and leaving this sick world behind to them.

Several instances include an AI-generated cartoon of a crazed-looking Gates holding a jar containing a malformed fly in one hand and a cup of what is presumably EntoMilk in the other.

It’s been posted on the known disinformation site Natural News, on the equally dodgy sites YourNews and SlayNews, and on YouTube.

But has Gates recently launched a “maggot milk” known as EntoMilk?

‘That’s your headline’

The claim began in a 20 June broadcast of the Alex Jones Show on InfoWars, titled “DISGUSTING: Bill Gates Wants You To Eat Maggot Milk.”

Alex Jones is a notorious conspiracist who founded InfoWars in 1999. US courts have ordered him to pay $1.5 billion to the parents of 20 six- and seven-year-old children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting for repeatedly saying the massacre was a hoax. The cases were the subject of a recent documentary, The Truth vs Alex Jones.

Jones’s broadcast uses a promotional video for EntoMilk, titled “Bug Milk”, which shows how it is made from black soldier fly larvae. Two people are seen drinking the milk while the voiceover describes its “creamy mouth-feel”.

The video ends with people being offered EntoMilk ice-cream to taste. Some look dubious.

The video stresses that insects may be “vital to the future of food” because they need little land for cultivation and aren’t as damaging to the environment as livestock such as cattle.

But Jones says: “Oh, it’s rich and creamy? And they are feeding the black people the maggots.” It’s clear he’s watching the video for the first time.

“Bill Gates is involved in these companies,” he suddenly adds, without evidence. “Bill Gates wants you to drink maggot milk.” Jones then gestures to someone off-screen, and says: “That’s your headline.”

Six-year-old advert for defunct product

The original video is almost six years old, first posted on YouTube in September 2018.

EntoMilk was a dairy-free milk alternative developed by South African food scientists and launched by their Cape Town-based startup Gourmet Grubb in 2017.

It was made from the larvae of farmed flies, so the “maggot milk” description, if dramatic, is almost true. The product was only sold as an ice cream and never in its liquid form, according to a July 2023 article.

But Entomilk has been off the market for years, and Gourmet Grubb is listed as out of business.

The Gourmet Grubb website no longer exists. The company’s Instagram page hasn’t been updated since 2020, and its description (note the past tense) reads: “Yes! we made insect ice cream from EntoMilk which is Dairy Free and insanely SUSTAINABLE! 2020 – we are going to level up – watch this space.”

Gates wasn’t “involved in” Gourmet Grubb. He’s not mentioned in any of the company’s online profiles. And if the billionaire had invested in a South African startup, it would have made many local headlines. But there’s no credible news of Gates’s involvement.

Bill Gates has not launched a “maggot milk” called EntoMilk. The claim is false, made up on the spot during the Alex Jones Show.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 22 July 2024

The post Bill Gates launches maggot milk? No, Alex Jones nonsense misuses South African dairy alternative EntoMilk appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 11 July 2024

Has Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni sent “40 truckloads” of troops to put down the recent finance bill protests in neighbouring Kenya?

That’s the claim in the caption for a photo circulating on social media since 25 June 2024.*

The photo shows a convoy of military and other vehicles on a road, heavily armed soldiers standing around them.

The caption reads: “Museveni sends 40 truckloads of UPDF to ‘quell Kenyan treasonous Gen Z demonstrations’.” One post on X has been viewed almost 500,000 times.

The UPDF is the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces. Gen Z refers to the popular notion of generation Z, young people born from 1997 to 2012.

On 18 June a wave of peaceful protests against the controversial Finance Bill 2024 swept Kenya. The bill proposed increased taxes on essential goods from bread to cooking oil, as well as new taxes on digital revenue and motor vehicles. It also set aside millions of US dollars to renovate State House.

When legislators passed the bill on 25 June the protests – largely led by young people – turned violent. Demonstrators stormed the grounds of parliament, setting part of the building on fire. Police responded with force and five people were shot dead.

President William Ruto denounced the protests as “treasonous”. A day later he said he would not sign the bill into law.

According to Kenya’s human rights commission, at least 39 people were killed in the protests from 18 June to 1 July

But does the photo really show troops from Uganda being sent to “quell Kenyan treasonous Gen Z demonstrations”?

Ugandan peacekeeping force contingent occupies DRC town

A reverse image search reveals that the photo has been online for more than a year, since April 2023. And while it does show Ugandan troops, they are not in Kenya.

The photo appears in several news reports on M23 rebels withdrawing from the town of Bunagana in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in early April of that year. A Ugandan contingent of the East African Community Regional Force then occupied the town.

It was posted on the X account @UPDFspokespersn on 3 April, with the caption: “Yesterday 2nd April 2023, Uganda Contingent of the East African Community Regional Force officially occupied areas of Bunagana Eastern DRC for a peacekeeping Mission in DRC after M23 left the area for UPDF.”

Yesterday 2nd April 2023, Uganda Contingent of the East African Community Regional Force officially occupied areas of Bunagana Eastern DRC for a peacekeeping Mission in DRC after M23 left the area for UPDF. pic.twitter.com/hA0Wi5SYKz

— – (@UPDFspokespersn) April 3, 2023

Conflict between M23 and government forces, supported by regional peacekeeping forces, has been raging in the DRC’s eastern North Kivu province since 2012. The United Nations has found that M23 receives support from Rwanda.

M23 had reportedly held Bunagana, a strategic town in North Kivu, for more than nine months.

There have been no credible news reports of Ugandan troops being sent to quell the protests in Kenya. And the photo was shot in the DRC in 2023.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 15 July 2024

The post Ugandan troops sent to suppress ‘treasonous Gen Z demos’ in Kenya? No, old pic from DR Congo appeared first on South Africa Gateway.